CAC 40 Down Nearly 0.5%

BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks drifted lower on Wednesday with investors making cautious moves, looking ahead to speeches from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and ECB President Christine Lagarde at the Sintra Forum later in the day.Uncertainty about US-Iran peace talks and the loss of momentum in the AI…

Uncertainty about US-Iran peace talks and the loss of momentum in the AI-driven tech rally also contribute to the subdued mood in the market.

The benchmark CAC 40 was down 39.03 points or 0.46% at 8,364.96 slightly past noon.

Schneider Electric shed nearly 2% after it signed an agreement to acquire industrial artificial intelligence company called Cognite Holding B.V. from Aker and other owners in a $3.1 billion all-cash deal.

Pernod Ricard, Orange and LVMH shed 1.7%-2%. Carrefour, Engie and Sanofi lost a little over 1.5%.

Vinci drifted, Capgemini, Publicis Groupe, TotalEnergies, Kering, BNP Paribas, Bouygues and Societe Generale lost 1%-1.4%. Unibail Rodamco, Hermes International, Bureau Veritas, Eiffage, AXA, Veolia Environment and Credit Agricole also drifted lower.

Renault rallied 3.2%. Thales moved up 2.7% and Airbus gained about 2.5%. Air Liquide, Stellantis, Safran and STMicroelectronics advanced 1%-2%.

Data from S&P Global showed the S&P Global France Manufacturing PMI was revised higher to 51.2 in June from 50.7 in the preliminary estimate and 49.7 in May, despite contractions in production and new orders.

Flash data from Eurostat showed Eurozone inflation slowed to a three-month low in June, weakening to 2.8% from 3.2% in May. This was the lowest rate since March and remained below forecast of 3%.

Core inflation that excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, softened to 2.4% from 2.6% in the prior month. Prices were expected to rise 2.5%.